Consider the stories we tell, the moral
or meaning lost over time. Perhaps it is culture
hindering the dog from learning
good etiquette. Colour as a cause. Naturally,
in a volte-face we can say it is a native’s
compliment because we advertise
for a fairer tint. In stories of war
the other is chimera, a shapeless
behemoth in need of a lesson…

TSERING WANGMO DHOMPA

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Tsering Wangmo Dhompa is the author of three titles from Apogee Press: In the Absent Everyday (2005), Rules of the House (2002, finalist for the Asian American Literary Awards in 2003) and My rice tastes like the lake (forthcoming). A former fellow at MacDowell Colony and Hedgebrook, she was raised in the Tibetan exile communities of Nepal and India. She now lives in San Francisco.